Friday, January 17, 2014

Fri Jan 17th Todays News

It is hard to know what the complaint of the left is to do with boat people and the Abbott government. Some are complaining that they don't really know what is happening, but with no boats in four weeks, probably nothing much is happening, and it isn't hard to know. Some say the Australian Navy is shooting at boat people. But they are such bad shots they hit no one. Others are saying the navy is rabidly giving away life boats and fuel. It simply is not what they want. The left like to give money to drowning people. It isn't the same if they aren't drowning. And the left like to watch it happen. It is very important that the victim is first exploited by a people smuggler. Otherwise it just won't be fair. If the Abbott government were to give money away to drowning people exploited by people smugglers then the left wing would be happy and quiet, like they were with Gillard. And as an added bonus, some Tasmanians would work for their living.I am one of the 85% of Australians not driving as much as 100 kms a day. And I don't own an iMieve. Why doesn't the Australian government do anything about that monster killing people in our streets, hurting children and pets and wearing shoes of every Australian on a daily basis. I am referring to pavement. It is similar as with the excuses given by an AGW alarmist who got stuck in ice in the middle of summer. It is very lucky there wasn't an iron pole nearby, or he'd have gotten his tongue stuck.
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Hatches

Happy birthday and many happy returns Wei SU. Born on this day, across the years, along with

Piers Akerman – Friday,January 17,2014 (5:49am)

LABOR, the Greens and the trade union movement have exposed themselves as frauds and charlatans with their criticism of the Coalition’s so-far successful border immigration policy. When the conservatives came to office, Labor and Green members vehemently ridiculed their plans to execute one of the principal planks of their policy platform and “stop the boats”.

Now that there have been no boats for four weeks, the same shrill voices are demanding more information on the operational details, full-knowing the people smugglers would love to know how Operation Sovereign Borders is effected so they can modify their own plans.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison is adamant he will not help the people smugglers but Labor and the Greens seem determined to do their utmost to ensure his effective policy can be undermined and more people will commit to risking their lives in leaky boats to jump the legal queue.

In seeking to have details of Operation Sovereign Borders revealed before a senate committee, Labor and the Greens are showing no appreciation of the national interest nor any concern for those involved in stopping the illegal people smuggling racket.

They have studiously ignored the reality that secrecy in this operation is of paramount importance and that just three days after the federal election, the Border Protection Command director of operations advised that no information should be released on where or when asylum seeker boats were detected or which navy vessel was involved in the operation.

With fewer boats and fewer illegal arrivals, Australia stands to reap a nearly $90 million-a-year dividend as Morrison closes four superfluous-to-needs detention centres. One would think Labor and the Greens would be turning cartwheels at the news. For years, they have been carrying on about the necessary detention of illegal arrivals but now the closures are a matter of grave consternation.

Acting Greens leader Richard di Natale has said he had “huge” concerns about the Coalition government’s approach to asylum seekers.

“We’ve got a situation where all of our detention centres are under huge strain … and we’re going to close down a number of centres in Australia, move those people (to) where there’s less scrutiny, where tensions are already at boiling point, what do we think’s going to happen?”

Let me remind di Natale of his party’s social justice policy, specifically this paragraph: “We will close down the worst remote Australian detention centres, including Curtin, Scherger, Wickham Point, Northern and North West Point on Christmas Island, saving $366 million.” Scherger is one Morrison intends closing, along with Port Augusta, Leonora and Pontville.

Pontville has been empty since last September, when the former (failed) Immigration Minister Tony Burke ordered the transfer of juvenile residents into community care.

The fact Pontville has stood empty, but staffed, for four-and-a-half months has not deterred Tasmania’s Labor Premier Lara Giddings, the Greens or the trade union involved from protesting its formal closure.

Ignoring the reality that federal Labor’s Burke emptied the facility, Giddings this week said the closure was a continuation of “the Liberal Party’s attack on Tasmanian jobs”.

“This is an appalling decision by the Liberal Party which makes a mockery of its promise to create jobs in Tasmania,” she scolded.

In Giddings’ Tasmania, it is smart to pay people to sit in an empty facility knowing that the state relies on mainlanders to fund their lifestyle.

United Voice, formerly the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union, wheeled out its Tasmanian secretary Helen Gibbons to express her dismay.

“This is a really sad scenario,” she said. “This centre had a reputation for being really well run. The staff there were trying to make the best possible environment.”

How difficult would it be to run a superb empty facility and create a great environment for non-existent illegal arrivals?

Gibbons wistfully harked back to an earlier era when federal Labor’s failed border protection policy ensured there were 270 jobs at Pontville. “They were all Tasmanians,” she wailed.

“There have been no refugees at all since late last year, which was a political decision by the new government when it first came to power.”

This is a great example of the need for illegal arrivals to prop up an industry which takes in rafts of workers from the former Miscos union, armies of social workers, and cadres of card-carrying Labor lawyers. Those lawyers are going to have to find other avenues of opportunity when the illegal arrival traffic is fully halted.

Morrison has also signalled he will personally cancel the visas of undesirable residents from now, denying them any right of appeal.

He acted after a string of Administrative Appeals Tribunal decisions that blocked the deportation of convicted criminals - including a New Zealand man who had a hand in the 2008 violent robbery of a prominent Melbourne doctor, and a Vietnamese man with a 17-year-long criminal record of robbery, thefts, weapons offences and crimes of dishonesty and assessed as having “a significant possibility that he may reoffend”.

Morrison’s actions are going to help the budget bottom line, they are going to save lives, and they are going to remove the stress that the unionists who have been working in detention centres have been complaining about.

This is a win-win-win result for the nation.

These should be causes for celebration, but not if you’re Labor or Greens supporter in search of causes for condemnation.

Tim Blair – Friday,January 17,2014 (12:27pm)

Pakistani asylum seeker, Fazal Qadir, 28, said he had set sail from an island off Java on January 5 bound for Christmas Island with 56 people from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq and Palestine on board, along with an Indonesian captain and one crew member. There was one woman with a 20-month-old toddler.

After about three or four days at sea, he said the group was spotted by an Australian aeroplane flying overhead. The boat was already leaking.

“We were very happy [when we saw them] because we thought when the boat went into the water, then they must receive us,” Mr Qadir said.

All of the people on board already knew of other vessels which had been returned to Indonesia, so were determined to be rescued rather than escorted back. One passenger took a piece of wood and prised open the hole that was already in the hull. Others rocked the boat.

When it foundered, two Australian speedboats reached them and the 12 navy personnel on board told the asylum seekers to cling to the side. The toddler was provided with a life jacket, Mr Qadir said.

The group were subsequently loaded aboard the HMAS Stuart before being transferred to a Customs and Border Protection boat. Conditions were just terrible, according to Qadir:

“The navy and Customs would not give us a phone.”

Oh no! Then came the final Australian treachery:

Mr Qadir said a small orange boat with a weather canopy was tied to the back of the Customs ship. They were told to board it because it would ferry them to Christmas Island.

At the last minute, though, a Customs officer came on board, tossed the asylum seekers a four-page document in a range of languages, and returned to the large ship, which sailed away.

The document, dated December 2013, reads: “You only have enough fuel to reach land in Indonesia. You do not have enough fuel to continue your voyage to Australia.

“The master of your vessel is now responsible for your safety. You must co-operate with the master and not act in a manner that risks your safety. You are responsible for your own actions. Your vessel is not equipped for a voyage to Australia. It is not safe to continue your voyage to Australia …”

The men said they were dropped very close to Indonesia. It took only three hours to reach shore.

Tim Blair – Friday,January 17,2014 (11:38am)

In the Thomas Kelly case, forensic pathologists determined that a crack on the front of the teenager’s skull was caused by the back of his head hitting the pavement after Loveridge punched him.

Therefore, prosecutors argued, it could not be proven it was the actual impact of Loveridge’s fist that killed him. Therefore, prosecutors argued, they could not pursue a charge of “grievous bodily harm occasioning death”. Therefore, prosecutors argued, they could not pursue a charge of murder because – and I’m not joking – you cannot charge a pavement with such a crime. It was the pavement, you see, that killed poor Thomas Kelly – not the punch – never mind how inextricably intertwined the two events are.

Tim Blair – Friday,January 17,2014 (11:00am)

• Chance it actually happened then = 100%. If Morriscum denies it, then you know it’s true. He couldn’t lie straight in bed, as the old saying goes.

• Well I believe Morrison. But then, I also believe that putting dog hair on a bite cures the wound if that particular dog bit you, and that the Catholuc priests were just checking that the hidden bits were in working order.

• If Oberfuhrer Morrision said it, it must be true..not!

• the willing liars don’t have to worry about having a canon fired in their direction.

• What more can one say about this dysfunctional idiot, I’m am totally lost for words.

• Considering the lies Morrison has told during the election campaign and since he became minister, it is pretty easy to believe they are telling the truth and he is lying....again

• Why is there no news leaking out from the Defence Force Personnell or their family’s. There must be an absolute climate of fear in our defence force. Funny thing though the truth will eventually leak out. Bet your life it will.

• This piece of sewer refuse has no concern for the lives of defenseless men women and children and he now uses the Navy to hide behind, as they carry out his filthy deeds on the high seas. Disgrace, absolute disgrace.

• The threat to use deadly force against refugees is unconscionable.

• Morrison denies it? I’d call that official confirmation it happened

• Interestingly “I can`t disclose that, because is an operational matter” is an anagram of “I`m a lying liberal c*nt”.

And the best, most paranoid line of them all, which deserves to appear in every Guardian comment thread:

The minister is begging for forgiveness while carrying on with a policy that was always going to lead to this type of disaster.

Again, the monstrous self-absorption of the Left. So indifferent when
their policies cost lives, so angry when policies they oppose save
lives.
It really is just about them. That is why intentions for the Left count for more than consequences. Slogans above gulags.
UPDATE
The Age is also outraged on Indonesia’s behalf.
Strangely, this same paper now so angry that we crossed into Indonesian waters to safely turn boat people back to Indonesia seemed unfussed when Labor instead lured hundreds to their deaths:

If the Government has blood on its hands for persisting in policies that
have lured so many to their deaths - more than 200 now in at least 10
known disasters since 2008 - what of the journalists who backed them?
In their guilty rage they have lashed out at me. But, far worse, they have shielded Gillard.
Barely one has held the Prime Minister to account for those policies. Too soon, they cry.
Yet it’s not too soon for journalists such as David Marr to blame the
navy, or a Dennis Atkins to blame the meanness of the Australian mob, or
a Heather Ewart to wonder if the Christmas Islanders could have done
more.
But Gillard is spared almost all such blame and questioning. It is sick…
The Age’s Michelle Grattan on Saturday accused me of “not a little
distasteful triumphalism about prior warnings”, but I don’t know how
else to prove the Government was warned its policies were costing lives
than by quoting earlier warnings, and I also don’t know which other
journalist issued warnings I could quote.
If Grattan had said before last week the Government was luring men,
women and children on to sinking boats, I’d have gladly quoted her
instead.
But she never did. Not once did she speak, as the tally of known deaths
jumped from five, to 14, to 25, to 42 and then, even before last week’s
tragedy, to as many as 170 or even more.

Final toll? Perhaps 2000 or even more. And the journalists who said
nothing to stop the drownings are now outraged that Tony Abbott has
taken the steps to stop them.
UPDATE
Maybe Hanson-Young is just cross at being proved so wrong - again. What she claimed before the election:

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison ... says the number of asylum seekers arriving by boat in Australia has fallen 80 per cent since Operation Sovereign Borders began four months ago.
He said trend is supported by a decrease in the arrival of asylum seekers in Indonesia as well.
“The number of persons newly presenting to the UNHCR in Jakarta for
registration per month has fallen from 1,608 in September to just 296 in
December,” he said.

Hanson-Young should simply say sorry. She has been demonstrably and
fatally wrong. How many people have drowned as a consequence?

TASMANIAN Labor has ended the nation’s first experiment of Greens in cabinet,
conceding power-sharing with the minor party alienates its core
supporters, suffocates its messages and must never be repeated.
However, Premier Lara Giddings yesterday risked undermining Labor’s
attempt to restore faith among its traditional voters by refusing to
rule out trading policies for support with the Greens after a March 15
election.

For four years Labor stuck with the Greens to stay in power. Only on the
eve of an election defeat does it say this was a mistake and it won’t
do it again – well, kind of.
That’s like the thief who’s sorry only for being caught.
Hypocrites.
The Greens have long claimed Tasmania is a beautiful island being wrecked by humans.
True enough, but those human wreckers are the Greens and their Labor
enablers. A state that can’t give work to its young has committed
suicide.

The Age crooned that “yesterday a stain was removed
from the soul of this nation” and “Australia began the process of
restoring some of its lost humanity”.
The Australian’s Mike Steketee added “Australia at least has a policy it can justify in terms of basic humanity”.
The Age’s immigration reporter said the new policy” more closely reflects the values of Australian society”.
The Sydney Morning Herald’s Adele Horin cried “a shameful era is over in Australian politics”.

But it is striking that such Leftists are angrier about imagined dead
boat people under Abbott than they were about real dead boat people
under Labor.
More evidence that their “compassion” is phony. It really is all about
them, and the dead boat people - in the sea or in their minds - are mere
props for their plays, in which they always cast themselves as the
hero.
UPDATE
Badham, of the Guardian, is also angry about imagined ”warning shots” allegedly fired by our navy over one boat - a false claim peddled by Fairfax.
More extraordinary is that she even fancies that those imagined warning shots were aimed not above one boat but were actually fired at several of them:

Dozens of tourist vessels visit the Antarctic without becoming trapped
by ice. So it’s entirely valid to inquire into why the one tourist
vessel led by a “climate scientist” became trapped by ice.
The leader of the expedition, Chris Turney ... claimed that the incident
could not have been predicted. He said that they were trapped by a
sudden “breakout” of multi-year ice ("fast ice") that had previously
been part of the ice shelf and that there was no way that they could
have anticipated this. Turney’s claim has been uncritically accepted by
the climate community...

And by many Leftist journalists and warmist science journals keen to cover for Turney:

With escalating derision towards Turney’s
expedition, Nature rushed another self-serving account of the events
into print on January 6, apparently without the slightest peer review,
quality control or due diligence.
In this article, Turney’s claims became even more fanciful and untrue.
Turney falsely stated that the Akademik Shokalskiy was an “ice breaker”,
even though it was merely a passenger ship that had been ice
strengthened.
Turney falsely claimed that the “science case” for the tour had been
“approved by the New Zealand Department of Conservation, the Tasmanian
Parks and Wildlife Service and the Australian Antarctic Division”, an
assertion that was quickly denied by the head of the Australian
Antarctic Division, who accused Turney of misrepresentation and said
that he had written to Turney asking him to cease such
misrepresentations.
In respect to the entrapment incident, Turney re-iterated the false
assertion that they had been trapped by a “mass breakout” of “multiyear
ice”, whereas ...they had been trapped by mobile pack ice within the
polynya [an area of open water surrounded by sea ice]…

McIntyre shows the MODIS imagery of ice spread though December that
suggests Turney and his team of warmists blundered where they should
have avoided. They sailed to the west of a mass of sea ice that could be
pushed against their ship by an utterly predictable easterly gale. Then
they got out on the ice and had fun:

December 23 was the critical day. The Akademik Shokalskiy had moored in
the Mertz Glacier polynya on the east face of the Commonwealth Bay
“permanent” ice about 8 km from the Antarctic coast. Watt Bay is to the
southwest.
Sources include several contemporary or near-contemporary blog posts: Turney...; Kerry-Jayne Wilson of the Blue Penguin Trust here; Green politician Janet Rice here and Robbie Turney here.
The normally active twitter accounts from Turney, Guardian Antarctica
and Alok Jha of the Guardian are surprisingly silent on events of
December 23 ( Guardian posts from December 23-24 instead document the
December 19-20 expedition to Mawson’s Huts.) Shub Niggurath also did a chronology of events on this day, which is consistent on overlapping points.
A blizzard on December 23 had been forecast (Janet Rice here). Conditions in the morning of December 23 were already very bad. Turney posted a tweet
in the morning of December 23 (estimated 9:48 New Zealand time) [North
America twitter time December 22 15:48]. Turney reported that they were
in a “Blizzard. -4degC, -15degC wind chill”, a description that is
inconsistent Turney’s subsequent claim that they had set out under “good
conditions”. Kerry-Jayne Wilson also reported that they had set out in
“blowing snow and near gale winds” and that it subsequently got worse…
Despite these very poor conditions, Turney authorized passengers to
leave the vessel for an excursion to the mainland, where three science
“projects” were carried out.
The offloading of the Argo vehicles was problematic: one of the vehicles
got into the water and could not be used. Both the botched offloading
and lack of a third vehicle further delayed the day’s activities (see
Janet Rice’s facebook entry, cited in several discussions)
A couple of days later, Turney described the day’s events in a self-serving report
that made no mention of the morning’s impending blizzard. Instead,
Turney claimed that there had been “good conditions” on December 23 and
that these “good conditions” permitted Kerry-Jayne Wilson to inspect a
penguin rookery, Tracey Rogers to sample seal blubber and Eleanor
Rainsley to collect geological samples. Turney said that conditions
closed in during the day and that they “quickly” loaded the vehicles
onto the vessel, but were unfortunately trapped:

Good conditions allowed the team to reach the Hodgeman Islets to
continue our science programme and make comparisons to our findings
around Mawson’s Hut… Returning to the Shokalskiy, conditions started to
close in and we quickly loaded the vehicles on to the vessel.
Unfortunately proceeding north we found our path blocked by ice
pushed in by an increasingly strong southeasterly wind. On Christmas Eve
we realised we could not get through, in spite of being just 2 nautical
miles from open water.

Obviously; Turney’s retrospective claim of “good conditions” in the
morning of December 23 is inconsistent with Wilson’s report and Turney’s
own contemporary tweet.
At least six passengers accompanied the three scientists on this outing,
including Green politician Janet Rice, Turney’s 12-year old son Robbie,
Mary [Regan], two “skiers” Peter [Stevenson?] and Steve [Lambert?] and
Ben [Hines, Fisk or Maddison].
The impending gale did not deter 12-year old Robbie Turney, who
described the day’s events as the “most fun that I’ve ever had outdoors
before”:

Today was absolutely stunning. This was
the day we got a full on drive in the Argos, along the fast ice and
straight to the continent. It was very enjoyable, possibly the most fun
I’ve ever had outdoors before. The ride was really bumpy and we were
going up and down getting some jumps when at full speed. … Once we got
to the continent we saw a massive towering rock that was home to a
colony of Adelie Penguins which were all laying on their eggs. This made
great photos but they were pretty aggressive because of it. But that
pretty much wraps it up for the day.

Meanwhile, according to [Greens senator-elect] Janet Rice, the Captain
became very concerned about the closing weather, but was unable to
immediately recall the passengers. The vessel appears to have left at
least several hours after the captain’s already risky target.

The third drama of the day is the one which is still unfolding.
Because of the Argo mishap we got off late, and had one less vehicle to
ferry people to and fro. I’m told the Captain was becoming rather
definite late in the afternoon that we needed to get everyone back on
board ASAP because of the coming weather and the ice closing in… I’m
sure the Captain would have been much happier if we had got away a few
hours earlier. Maybe we would have made it through the worst before it
consolidated as much as it has with the very cold south- easterly winds
blowing the ice away from the coast, around and behind us as well as
ahead.

Is this how seriously and meticulously Turney does all his climate
“research”? And who paid for his wife and two children to accompany him?
Who pays for their rescue?
McIntyre concludes:

Even if an adventure tour ventured into a polyna it is doubtful that a
tour leader would decide to moor the vessel on the exposed shore of the
polyna with an impending easterly gale. Or if such a decision were made,
to allow passengers to disembark. But the most startling aspect of the
affair is surely Turney’s decision to authorize passengers to go well
out of immediate contact with the vessel so that they were not
immediately recallable in a matter of minutes. As discussed above, it
seems beyond dispute that Turney was pinned by pack ice that was
unstably perched to the northeast of Mertz Glacier and not by a sudden
break of more or less ‘permanent’ shelf ice; that this “peninsula” of
pack ice was highly exposed to the easterly gale that had already
developed; and that heavy blowing of this (and other mobile ice) onto
the southwest shore of the Mertz Glacier polynya was not only a
possibility, but a probability, if not, near certainty.
One can see why Turney wants to characterize the movement of sea ice as
something that could not have been predicted or mitigated, but there is
no reason why anyone else should accept Turney’s characterization and
many reasons to reject it.

Read it all. It is devastating to Turney’s credibility.
And, once again, we must ask: where is the mainstream media in exposing this?

PRAY.Father God, You already know what I have done, and I confess to You that I have had an abortion and that it is a sin. You know of my sorrow for having done this, and how I grieve for my unborn baby. I feel like I cannot approach you for forgiveness. I realize that I can't contain the guilt the shame and the grief. I feel like I must release this pain to You. I truly long for your forgiveness and realize that I do not deserve it. It is truly by Your grace and mercy that You would extend this forgiveness to me. In Jesus' Name,Amen.

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LET THE LIVING CHILD LIVE.life is precious, in the eyes of God.God says thou shalt not kill. In this commandment God has established the sanctity of human life.We learn from the Bible that God is solely the giver of life and only He has the right to take it away. It is important to remember that the unborn are just as precious to the Lord as the living.I write this because of the number of people coming to my office for abortion.Society tells us that the unborn are not human. However, as Christians, we know that the Bible tells us otherwise, that human life begins at conception.

If someone has had an abortion and is feeling guilt and grief about it, the Holy Spirit can provide inner healing to them. Ask for for forgiveness.Jesus will extend his grace and mercy to forgive us of all our sins, no matter the magnitude of them. It is our job as believers, to reach out and minister to those who have been affected by abortion in their personal lives or in their family. Abortion is not only a criminal act,it is totally condemn by God. Let's take time to remember this commandment, where God established the sanctity of human life.Thou shall not kill.God bless you.

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PRAY.Father,I thank You for setting me up for success in everything I do. I choose to trust and rely on You knowing that Your plans are for my good. I know my best days are ahead of me and look ahead to the blessings You have in store for me in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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Life is full of things that try to push us down but if you fall,get up.The Scripture says,“For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again.”(Proverbs 24:16, NIV)

It’s easy to get discouraged or lose your enthusiasm or even be tempted to just settle where you are. But if we’re going to see God’s best, we have to have a “bounce-back” mentality. That means when you get knocked down, you don’t stay down. You get back up again. You have to know that every time adversity comes against you, it’s a setup for a comeback.

Remember, as a believer in Jesus, the same power that raised Christ from the dead lives on the inside of you. There is no challenge too difficult, no obstacle too high, no sickness, no disappointment, no person, nothing that can keep you from your God-given destiny. If you stay in faith, then God will turn what was meant to be a stumbling block into a stepping stone, and you’ll move forward in strength, full of faith and victory.

There's a difference between sounding intelligent and sounding middle class. Just saying'.

Our brains, when they function right, have mirror neurones which tend to copy what we observe, allowing us insight into a smile and empathy. It also means we tend to copy what we aspire to. Resisting such behaviour which can be positive or at worst benign seems demented .. but I just throw that out there to be persuaded. - ed

After listening to you declare repeatedly over the past weeks that "Israel's settlements are illegitimate", I respectfully wish to state, unequivocally, that you are mistaken and ill advised, both in law and in fact.

Pursuant to the "Oslo Accords", and specifically the Israel-Palestinian Interim Agreement (1995), the "issue of settlements" is one of subjects to be negotiated in the permanent status negotiations. President Bill Clinton on behalf of the US, is signatory as witness to that agreement, together with the leaders of the EU, Russia, Egypt, Jordan and Norway.

Your statements serve to not only to prejudge this negotiating issue, but also to undermine the integrity of that agreement, as well as the very negotiations that you so enthusiastically advocate.

Your determination that Israel's settlements are illegitimate cannot be legally substantiated. The oft-quoted prohibition on transferring population into occupied territory (Art. 49 of the 4th Geneva Convention) was, according to the International Committee Red Cross's own official commentary of that convention, drafted in 1949 to prevent the forced, mass transfer of populations carried out by the Nazis in the Second World War. It was never intended to apply to Israel's settlement activity. Attempts by the international community to attribute this article to Israel emanate from clear partisan motives, with which you, and the US are now identifying.

The formal applicability of that convention to the disputed territories cannot be claimed since they were not occupied from a prior, legitimate sovereign power.

The territories cannot be defined as "Palestinian territories" or, as you yourself frequently state, as "Palestine". No such entity exists, and the whole purpose of the permanent status negotiation is to determine, by agreement, the status of the territory, to which Israel has a legitimate claim, backed by international legal and historic rights. How can you presume to undermine this negotiation?

There is no requirement in any of the signed agreements between Israel and the Palestinians that Israel cease, or freeze settlement activity. The opposite is in fact the case. The above-noted 1995 interim agreement enables each party to plan, zone and build in the areas under its respective control.

Israel's settlement policy neither prejudices the outcome of the negotiations nor does it involve displacement of local Palestinian residents from their private property. Israel is indeed duly committed to negotiate the issue of settlements, and thus there is no room for any predetermination by you intended to prejudge the outcome of that negotiation.

By your repeating this ill-advised determination that Israel's settlements are illegitimate, and by your threatening Israel with a "third Palestinian intifada" and international isolation and delegitimization, you are in fact buying into, and even fueling the Palestinian propaganda narrative, and exerting unfair pressure on Israel. This is equally the case with your insistence on a false and unrealistic time limit to the negotiation.

As such you are taking sides, thereby prejudicing your own personal credibility, as well as that of the US.

With a view to restoring your own and the US's credibility, and to come with clean hands to the negotiation, you are respectfully requested to publicly and formally retract your determination as to the illegitimate nature of Israel's settlements and to cease your pressure on Israel.

Passion is what energizes life. It turns the impossible into possible. In fact if you don’t have any passion in your life, ministry will become boring, dull, routine, monotonous. I’ll go so far as say if you don’t have passion in your life you are not living. You are existing. God made you to live a passionate life and to serve Him and His people with vitality. With vibrancy. With energy. With enthusiasm. He wants you to have this in your life.

The apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:9, “God, who got you started in this spiritual adventure, shares with us the life of his Son and our Master Jesus. He will never give up on you. Never forget that.” God’s will for you is to live and lead in a spiritual adventure. The life that God plans for you is not a mundane boring life. It is an adventurous life. Helen Keller once said, “Life is either a daring adventure or it’s nothing.” I often think the same should be true of our ministry – it’s a daring, bold adventure, or it’s nothing.

I want to share with you a few ways to re-ignite your passion for life and ministry...

This morning let us hear the Lord Jesus speak to each one of us: "I will help thee." "It is but a small thing for me, thy God, to help thee. Consider what I have done already. What! not help thee? Why, I bought thee with my blood. What! not help thee? I have died for thee; and if I have done the greater, will I not do the less? Help thee! It is the least thing I will ever do for thee; I have done more, and will do more. Before the world began I chose thee. I made the covenant for thee. I laid aside my glory and became a man for thee; I gave up my life for thee; and if I did all this, I will surely help thee now. In helping thee, I am giving thee what I have bought for thee already. If thou hadst need of a thousand times as much help, I would give it thee; thou requirest little compared with what I am ready to give. 'Tis much for thee to need, but it is nothing for me to bestow. Help thee?' Fear not! If there were an ant at the door of thy granary asking for help, it would not ruin thee to give him a handful of thy wheat; and thou art nothing but a tiny insect at the door of my all-sufficiency. I will help thee.'"

O my soul, is not this enough? Dost thou need more strength than the omnipotence of the United Trinity? Dost thou want more wisdom than exists in the Father, more love than displays itself in the Son, or more power than is manifest in the influences of the Spirit? Bring hither thine empty pitcher! Surely this well will fill it. Haste, gather up thy wants, and bring them here--thine emptiness, thy woes, thy needs. Behold, this river of God is full for thy supply; what canst thou desire beside? Go forth, my soul, in this thy might. The Eternal God is thine helper!

"Fear not, I am with thee, oh, be not dismay'd!I, I am thy God, and will still give thee aid."

Blessed be his name, there was no cause of death in him. Neither original nor actual sin had defiled him, and therefore death had no claim upon him. No man could have taken his life from him justly, for he had done no man wrong, and no man could even have lain him by force unless he had been pleased to yield himself to die. But lo, one sins and another suffers. Justice was offended by us, but found its satisfaction in him. Rivers of tears, mountains of offerings, seas of the blood of bullocks, and hills of frankincense, could not have availed for the removal of sin; but Jesus was cut off for us, and the cause of wrath was cut off at once, for sin was put away forever. Herein is wisdom, whereby substitution, the sure and speedy way of atonement, was devised! Herein is condescension, which brought Messiah, the Prince, to wear a crown of thorns, and die upon the cross! Herein is love, which led the Redeemer to lay down his life for his enemies!

It is not enough, however, to admire the spectacle of the innocent bleeding for the guilty, we must make sure of our interest therein. The special object of the Messiah's death was the salvation of his church; have we a part and a lot among those for whom he gave his life a ransom? Did the Lord Jesus stand as our representative? Are we healed by his stripes? It will be a terrible thing indeed if we should come short of a portion in his sacrifice; it were better for us that we had never been born. Solemn as the question is, it is a joyful circumstance that it is one which may be answered clearly and without mistake. To all who believe on him the Lord Jesus is a present Saviour, and upon them all the blood of reconciliation has been sprinkled. Let all who trust in the merit of Messiah's death be joyful at every remembrance of him, and let their holy gratitude lead them to the fullest consecration to his cause.

Today's reading: Genesis 39-40, Matthew 11 (NIV)

Joseph and Potiphar's Wife

1 Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.

2 The LORD was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did, 4 Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. 5From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the LORD blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the LORD was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. 6 So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph's care; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate....

Jesus and John the Baptist

1 After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee.

2 When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples 3 to ask him, "Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?"

4 Jesus replied, "Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. 6 Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me."

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About Me

I'm author of History in a Year by the Conservative Voice aka History of the World in a Year by the Conservative Voice.

I'm the Conservative Voice.

I'm looking to make contact with those who might use my skill.

I have an m-audio mobile pre amp fed by the audiotechnica 2041sp condensor mic pack. Prior to 15/4/06, I'd used a Shure sm-58 that required a nuclear blast to register a sound or the internal mic of my aged imac, which has a penchance to recording my breathing. I also used a Griffin itrip, until the community convinced me it was not hiding my talent as well as the other mics.

I am a Writer and an occasional Math Teacher (Sir, what's the occasion?). I like to sing, having no instrumental talent (cannot even clap in time, and yes, I'm aware singing badly IS obnoxious).

I have performed the finale to Les Miserables before an audience of 500. I have also sung before a similar audience (students, parents) renditions of 'I Will' (Beatles), 'Mr Cairo' (Jon Vangelis) and 'I am Australian' (Seekers). Now I seek another profession because the audience hates me ..